New Theranos Hires Could Help the Company Find Its Way Back

Blood-testing company Theranos Inc. said on Thursday it hired two executives to oversee regulatory, quality and compliance standards, as the company tries to recover from a series of regulatory sanctions and investigations.

The company named former Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. executive Dave Wurtz vice president, regulatory and quality.

Daniel Guggenheim, who previously served as assistant general counsel at McKesson Corp., was appointed as chief compliance officer.

Theranos, once valued at $9 billion, was founded by Elizabeth Holmes in 2003 to develop a blood testing device that would deliver quicker results using only a drop of blood.

The company came under pressure after the Wall Street Journal published a series of articles beginning October last year that suggested the devices were flawed.

Earlier in July, Holmes, once touted as the Steve Jobs of biotech for her innovative technology, was barred by a U.S. regulator from owning or operating a lab for at least two years.

The ban, among other sanctions, came six months after the regulator sent a scathing letter to the company, saying its practices were jeopardizing patient health and safety.

Theranos is also facing a class action lawsuit filed in May accusing it of endangering customer health through "massive failures" that misrepresented test results.

The company is also being investigated by other federal and state agencies.

Last month, Forbes estimated that the startup's value had shrunk to $800 million.

"If the company wants regulators to take its claims of self-reform seriously, Holmes has to leave," Professor Eric Gordon of the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan said in an emailed statement.

On Thursday, Palo Alto, California-based Theranos said its board had also created a compliance and quality committee.

(Reporting by Anya George Tharakan and Natalie Grover in Bengaluru; Editing by Sayantani Ghosh and Sriraj Kalluvila)

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